I recently attended a webinar about next level real estate and marketing strategies. The goal was to help attendees stay ahead of marketing trends this year and into the future. The panel included popular real estate marketing coach Jason Pantana. And the word that came out of his mouth most frequently was video, especially when asked about building a personal brand.
Personal Brand Starts with Social Media
The question Pantana was asked: “How can real estate professionals effectively leverage social media and digital platforms to build a personal brand and connect with clients?” Without hesitation, Pantana mentioned that you need to be on social media. For those just starting out on social media, he suggests beginning with one platform and learning how to dominate on that platform.
“A lot of people aren’t to the point of saying, I want to build my personal brand,” said Pantana. “They just want to leverage social media. But I would say social media was made for personal influence.”
Leverage Video to Build Personal Brand
And then Pantana quickly turned his attention to video.
“If you’re not creating video on your content mix across social platforms, you’re missing out on the medium of the day,” Pantana said.
“People consume video more than anything else in terms of content,” he added. “I encourage you to roll up your sleeves and say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna build a personal brand’ and part of building a personal brand is saying, ‘I’m going for it. I’m going to do this.'”
He punched home the point by simply concluding that there is “no better medium than video right now” to build your personal brand.
I’m sharing this because I wholeheartedly agree. And I’m not saying that because I’m a video professional. I’m saying it because it’s absolutely true. Video is the king of content right now (and into the foreseeable future). And nothing shares YOU like video. Or in other words, nothing builds a personal brand like video. That’s because people feel engaged with you on video. They hear your voice and they see your personality. Aside from in person interaction, nothing matches the personal touch of video.
And I get that being in front of the camera isn’t for everyone. But that’s how you build your personal brand, which is where Pantana’s “roll up your sleeves” message comes back into play.
“You can’t hide yourself from the camera. You have to be the influencer,” Pantana said. “People are choosing to work with you. The listing isn’t the product. It’s a product. But the real product is you.”
“People are choosing to align themselves with you because of your expertise and your skillset to be able to sell a property,” added Pantana. “The way you present a property reflects on you. Ultimately, it’s about you.”
3 Video Verticals to Build Personal Brand
Pantana offers three video verticals you should use to build your personal brand in real estate:
Talking Head Videos
Get in front of the camera and share tips and advice about the market. Establish yourself as an expert. Doing this leads to demand generation (a nifty marketing concept for real estate or otherwise).
“It’s you supplying information in a way where the consumer thinks, ‘I want to know more about that,” said Pantana. “It invites them into how your services could help them achieve what they’re looking to do, whether it’s buy or sell.”
Here are some tips we put together for creating impactful talking head videos for business and real estate.
Property Listing Videos
Get on camera for your property listing videos. This allows you to really take ownership of your listing, which in turn builds your personal brand. When people see you on camera for a listing over and over again, it’s impossible to not notice you and the hard work you’re doing as a real estate professional.
“However you want do it, find your own path forward, but leverage the listing to gain association that you are the dominant listing agent in the area,” said Pantana.
Local Social Videos
Admittedly, this one is a bit technical. And possibly even a little trendy for the time. But ultimately the hope is that your local social videos strike the right chord with the algorithms for TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook. By saturating the platform with hyperlocal content about your market, your videos could appear in “suggested posts” or “for you” feeds. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice but it could pay off if done correctly.
“You’ll build a brand that’s not just famous among agents all over the place, but in your own backyard of your community,” said Pantana.
Listen, it’s fun to go viral and organically reach millions of viewers. And I don’t want to tell you to not shoot for the stars. Dream big. But the focus should be on creating high quality, valuable local social videos. Who makes the best burger in town? Where is the best playground to take your kids? How are you volunteering in your community? Simply focus on making great local social content. If you do that, you will be successful — maybe not going viral but definitely building your personal brand. And that’s the goal.
Create Videos, Videos & More Videos
The moral of the story: use video to build your personal brand in real estate. Yes, video can be expensive. But it also doesn’t have to be. You already have a phone, and rest assured that phone has a camera. And just like that you can start to create videos and post them on free social media platforms. And if you have an iPhone, here are the best settings to use to produce the highest quality video.
If you want to level up your personal brand with professional video, real estate marketing companies are ready to help. Our Seattle video production and content creation company has years of experience with real estate professionals. Contact us to help with video production, digital strategy, real estate photography, or anything else you might need.
And don’t forget top follow Moarly Creative on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And check us out on YouTube and Vimeo to see more samples of our work in real estate and beyond.